Session Notes: Return to the Underdark
Session 37 Intending to find Mouse and Osle to assist in their travels to the lost Khundrukar, the party teleports to Rubicon, where the party splits up. Xael runs into Hari, who recently relocated and is working at Whitfeather's Fineries and has rented out Mouse for cart pulling. As Tazlynn and Andr'el are awaiting near the last building in the town, Tazlynn notices Mouse head by pulling a cart. Following the cart, the party meets up at Whitfeather's. The party takes their leave and heads back to Stracili along the roads. Reaching Stracili, Xael hooks up his luxurious cart to Mouse and the party begins to head back to Rubicon, planning on heading north, before Andr'el receives a message from Proclin informing him of their summons by King Montgomery to Daramir at their earliest convenience. Upon reaching Daramir, the party is escorted in a coach to guest quarters within the castle where they are given the night to rest. In the morning, the party meets with King Montgomery, who questions them about what they had encountered in the Underdark and asks them to convince some important figures to assist in clearing the underdark of the demon lords, with the party leading the charge. Before the dinner, Uraelle enjoys some time in a park in the northern section of the city, while Xael visits a graveyard, plotting use of the whistle to raise the dead. Session 38 The party attends the dinner service, convincing the various faction representatives in attendance to supply troops to the expedition to the Underdark, and especially convincing the Knight's Shadow to assist in reaching Gravenhollow, the underground library containing a variety of ancient tomes about the demon lords. In return for the troops, some of the representatives ask for some assistance. The Zelen Lake Alliance has an operative spying on the drow under disguise as one, but has lost contact with her; while the Wardens of Twilight have lost a scout somewhere in the Underdark. Davra Jassur readily supplies the party with some Knight's Shadow thugs to lead them to Mantol-Derith in order to find their operative, Ghazrim DuLoc, who can lead them to the Underdark library. It's also revealed that Proclin is a member of the Order of the Silver Star. He challenges Andr'el to a chess match for access to a shield guardian. Andr'el loses the chess match, but Xael steals the control amulet (with Proclin's blessing) giving it to Andr'el in the night. The following day, the party heads to Crane's Magical Devices, purchasing a variety magical items to assist them in the Underdark. Heading out, they reach some hills to the south west of the city, entering a cave guarded by Knight's Shadow members. Once in the Underdark, they navigate their way to Mantol-Derith, defeating oozes and assisting escaped slaves in reaching the surface. Reaching the outpost through a secret door in a trench, they hear sounds of combat of to the south. Session 39 Investigating the commotion, Xael and Uraelle head up some stairs from the trench where they see a pair of enlarged dreugar chasing svirneblin through an emptied market. Andr'el climbs the side of a trench on a riding lizard as the dreugar kill one of the fleeing svirneblin. Andr'el approaches as a svirneblin runs past carrying a bag and asking for help. Thinking the svirneblin a thief, he fires a magic missile at the bag, exploding it, revealing causing a variety of tools to go flying loose. Tazlynn approaches the top of the stairs, waiting for engagement with whoever the combatants might be. As the svirneblin continues to run, Xael runs in disguised as a dreugar. Attempting to separate the combatants, Andr'el casts wall of water around the svirneblin, stopping him, but not thinking of the enlarged size of the dreugar. Believing the dragonborn to be assisting, they swing through the wall of water, hitting the svirneblin. Fleeing through the wall of water, the deep gnome hides inside a pot as the party engages the dreugar. Nearing death, they turn invisible, but Uraelle is able to detect them, and kills one before he flees. Xael approaches the hiding svirneblin as Andr'el gathers the some of the contents of the exploded bag into a basket. Bringing the svirneblin to the party, he tells them the dreugar are attacking all the svirneblin, claiming they stole a gem of sizable proportion. The svirneblin leads the party to the Knight's Shadow Enclave, where inside an open-sided pavilion, they see four female drow waiting. Sneaking closer, Uraelle notices one is glowing with strong abjuration magic while Tazlynn notices a gargoyle perched on a cliff ledge above. While discussing how to proceed, Knight's Shadow members appear from double-doors to the north and head into the pavilion, noticing Tazlynn standing near by. Sending off a contingent to speak with the party, the majority of the black network head into the pavilion and discuss with the drow splitting Mantol-Derith between their groups once the dreugar kill the svirneblin off. As a beholder appears from the same doors and approaches the meeting, Tazlynn speaks with the thugs, showing them a symbol of the Knight's Shadow. The thugs then ask her to take a seat and await Ghazrim DuLoc. While waiting, combat ensues within the pavilion, the party engaging mostly on the side of the drow, attacking the beholder. As the party comes under control of the beholder and most of the drow fled or dead, Ghazrim calls for the party to place down their weapons, the party obliges. Session 40 Taking a moment to speak with Ghazrim, the party reveals they are in the Underdark seeking to rid it of the demon lords and require information from Gravenhollow. Ghazrim outfits the party and their troop with supplies and gives them a ring that will guide them to their destination. While Andr'el oversee's the resupply, the rest of the party heads in the direction of the fleeing drow, towards their enclave. In the surrounding mushroom area, they meet two people: Zilchyn Q'Leptin, a drow cartographer whom they commission a map of the Wurm Writhings; and Flink, a svirneblin who tells the party about what's happening in Mantol-Derith. According to Flink, the dreugar came across a large gem and had sold it to Flink mistress. Flink was then given the gem, and told to trade it to the drow for components to an invisibility spell. The dreugar claimed the gem was stolen and started killing all the svirneblin. During the chaos, Flink got away, but the gem was stolen by one of the stone gargoyles under the employ of the drow. Continuing to follow the path left by the fleeing drow, Xael approaches the entrance to the drow warehouse with his fellow party members where they are stopped. Thinking quickly, he changes his appearance to that of one of the female guards that had died, claiming to have been in disguise to escape safely. Being granted access to the warehouse, he confronts Kinyel Druu'gir, learning that the gem had been given to her by a gargoyle, and that it is a secret order from Menzoberrenzan to slay the beholder. Taking the dark gem, Xael sees within it a brush of some decaying tentacle against its inside surface and falls to madness, never capable of revealing his true intentions to anyone. Leaving the warehouse, he joins back with the party and they leave Mantol-Derith towards Gravenhollow. During the first few days of travel, Uraelle has a short fit of laughing; some supplies are found to have been poisoned, but not before both Knight's Shadow and Zelen Lake Alliance members contract sewer plague; some dead fire beetles are found; the party avoids an ochre jelly; and they encounter Juiblex. During combat with Juiblex, Uraelle looses contact with her patron, losing all magical abilities. The party, realizing the strength of their foe, flee, sending back a goat with Focuses Curse tied around its neck. Session 41 Continuing their travels to Gravenhollow, the party is alerted of a pair of chasmes demons ahead that they choose to avoid. A few days later, those caring for the giant lizards have an argument on how to treat an issue with mites one has contracted. The argument gets the attention of a rocktopus that the party quickly slays. As the party continues to travel, Uraelle feels a breeze of cold coming from a small fissure in the cavern wall, secretly investigating it, she finds herself emerging in a snow white blizzard. The blizzard freezes in place, and her patron, the Snow Queen appears. Working out a deal, Uraelles powers are restored, with the ultimatum that if she does not do as she's told once done in the Underdark, there will be dire consequences. Returning to the troop, only moments have passed as she joins back up. During the following days, a knife is reported stolen, two members of the Knight's Shadow and a member of the Zelen Lake Alliance disappear with no traces, and two members of the Wardens of Twilight contract sewer plague. The troop then encounters three goblin scouts. Chasing them through tunnels for a few hours, they reach a small camp of goblins. Andr'el quickly dispatches of them with a fireball and the party captures and questions two of them. The goblins report being a part of a lost collection from their tribe after fleeing a group of demons, and don't know where the rest of their tribe and their leader, Boss Nass, are located. Under threat and fear, they tentatively join the troop. A few days later, a brawl between the Knight's Shadow and the Wardens of Twilight occurs, which reveals some other issues the troop currently has, including fear of the party leaders, of their lives, and generally hoping to have a greater say in how things go. The group takes a few days to build teamwork and cooperation to aid in ridding the Underdark of the demon lords. When travel begins again, they reach a small group of vrock, where the party and the troop test out their new cooperation, making quick work of the demons. Session 42 Two days after, the parties scouts report the presence of a small group of goblins ahead. Sending one of the goblins and Xael ahead, the find that it's the troupe the goblins had been separated by, currently eating and roasting fish. As time passes, the rest of the party approaches, and combat ensues, with only one of the new goblins remaining alive. As the party continues their travels, they come across a group of dead kuo-toa, presumably killed in battle by the goblins. Nearly six days later, the party faces off against a fly-like demon that causes the party to fall unconscious with its lulling rhythm, but manage to break free and slay the creature, recovering its proboscis. Fifteen days later, the party hears what sounds like singing in a variety of languages. Session 43 Reaching the singing, the party discovers it to be a basilisk, who speaks to the party in a curt manner, informing them he is there to guide them to the library. At the library, the party explores the various levels and rooms, eventually coming across one of the librarians who shows the party how to use one of the crystals to access more information. Uraelle finds that demon lords appeared by Gromph, within the city of Menzoberranzan, was tricked by Lolth to summon the demon lords. That Lolth is still in the abyss, and that there are a variety of demon lords throughout the underdark, including one within a gem being carried by the party. With Xael's assistance, she learns of an ancient sword within the horde of a black dragon. Xael comes across a map room, copying down various charts, finds a few books describing vaguely how Tharizdun was imprisoned within the bottom of the abyss by the two gods Melora and Obad-Hai, and the various attempts taken in the future to restore Tharizdun to power. Andr'el finds books describing a few dragons and dragonborn that have traveled through the underdark, and stumbled across Vizeran, whom Andr'el assisted in discovering how Gromph was involved in the events that took place in the demon lords appearing in the underdark. Tazlynn found a few books on the stonework of the library and its enchantments that keep the library from being discovered, about Khundrukar (Glitterheim) history, and of events happening in Graklstugh. Afterwards, the party was approached by Vizeran, who offered them information if they would follow him to his tower. Session 44 Following Vizeran, the party is teleported some distance away, where he leads them to a secret entrance. Through the entrance, the party witnesses the tower Araj. Instructed to keep to the lower floors, the party spends the night before talks about what needs to be done about the demon lords take place. The party is given the task of acquiring various components Vizeran will use to lure the demon lords, where they will weaken each other in combat before being forced into a vessel and sent back through to the abyss. The party first decides to head to the Wormwrithings by way of teleportation circle, where they are to acquire the egg of a purple worm. After travelling a few days, the come across a cavern inhabited by two groups of troglodytes in combat with each other. Session 45 The party sneaks through a side passage, freeing some dwarves and drow from a pit. The drow flee, but the dwarves remain behind, informing them that the war marshal of the troglodytes lead an attack against a drow scouting party, recovering a magic sword. The chief, on the other side of the water, laid claim to the sword, but the war master and his followers disagree. Continuing along the side passage, they encounter some more troglodytes and some ropers before deciding to take a rest. Session 46 Soon after starting their rest, the party hears a commotion in the main chamber. Investigating, Xael sees that the troglodytes are attacking each other. Deciding to interfere, he fires a few bolts before being discovered and making an escape and hiding in a crack in the ceiling. After the party finishes their rest, they head to the main chamber to discover the troglodytes on alert and searching for the lone drow. The party engage the troglodytes and the troglodytes, never backing down from a fight, accept the challenge before being annihilated. The party recovers the magic sword and continue towards the worm nest. Session 47 As the party travels down the passages, they hear a voice warning them to turn back. Ignoring the warning they continue and come across a drow, Hanne Hallen, on a ledge out of reach. Befriending her, they learn she was out hunting for purple worm eggs before being separated from her mother and their hunting party, the Dark Hunters. They then convince her to go come along. The next day, the party falls into a hole. Exploring the new chambers they find themselves in, they find some loose earth to the east with bones scattered all about, while Andr'el and Uraelle find a deep pit to the south. It seems a former adventurer had fallen into the deep pit and became stuck on a ledge. Andr'el nearly suffers the same fate as he falls in too, but climbs out. As the earth begins to shake, the party takes shelter as a purple worm bursts through the walls, excavating an entrance to the worms nursery. The party harvests some eggs, being careful not to alert the worms of their intrusion. While doing so, the Dark Hunters appear and Hanne is reunited with her mother. The party then heads out, on their way to a beholders lair. Session 48 The party reaches the outskirts of the beholders lair and find a side cavern a few miles off to camp in. Xael takes the opportunity to sneak forward, always feeling watched by eyes he can see just on the distance of his vision. As he enters a large tube spanned with bridges, he finds that the inhabitants worship the beholder, Karazikar, as a god. Convincing them to gather for worship. The procession leads him to a central chasm, where he soon finds there's even a high priest that disperses the gathering. Returning to the party, Xael tells them of what he saw, and they decide to kill the high priest in hopes of infuriating the beholder to leave its lair Session 49 As the party approaches the entrance, they begin to have second thoughts. Xael disguises himself once again and leads a follower out to question him. The party does not know what to ask, so Xael knocks him out. Discussing their course of action, the party decides to leave the beholder for later, and head back to their camp to teleport back to Araj. Xael remains behind, and within a globe of silence, sacrifices the follower to his patron, Tharizdun. Finding that Xael is missing, the party sends back some scouts to find him. Being discovered, Xael tells them he'll catch up, and the scouts return, warning the party to leave Xael behind as he was torturing the follower, something they despised. Completed with his sacrifice and message he leaves the beholder, Xael returns and the party teleports back to Araj. Reaching Araj, they rest before deciding their next destination as the Labyrinth. Before heading out, the Knights of the Wardens of Twilight have a discussion without Xael around, informing them they will not travel with Xael. Uraelle speaks with Vizeran, who produces an amulet that supresses the demon lords madness, supposedly what has caused Xael to act as he does. Another amulet, on Xael's behest, is given to Andr'el. Mollified, the knights agree to travel and head out with the party to the Labyrinth. Session 50 The party traverses the Labyrinth, its walls veined throughout with the faezress. After a day, they come across a large adamantium tower at edge or ravine. Inspecting the tower and attempting to enter, gargoyles at the top awaken and fight the party, but they are quickly dispatched. Unable to open the door, Xael see's through a crack and teleports inside. Within, he comes across the sole occupant, dead, and a potion he quickly drinks. Traveling to the second floor, he is attacked by shadow demons. Fleeing with his life, he returns to the party, able to read the surface thoughts of his companions for a period of time. The party travel around the tower and descend the ravine. On their third day of travel within the labyrinth, they come across a frog-like demon, a Hezrou, tearing at some mining tracks in a small tunnel. Alerted, the demon attacks, but they kill it before it can cause too much harm. The party then reach a bridge over a rift, where sit some shrieker mushrooms. Silencing them, they cross the bridge without issue. On their fourth day, they reach the entrance to a maze. Session 51 Party traverses maze with the help of a gnoll . Reaching the other side, the gnoll tells them of the party heads their, finding they worship Yenogu. The party slays them and continues south. After a few encounters, the party reaches a crack in the wall, through it they hear marching. Travelling down it, they find a group of unusually shaped creatures. Session 52 Xael contacts the creatures and begins communication, it seems they want to leave. Once a form of useful communication is found, they agree to aid the party in reaching the Orderer after the party reaches the . On the way, they come across Yenogu defeating a . The party watches as Yenogu leaves, they defeat the remaining gnolls and acquire a heart and some demon lord blood. Continuing to the Gallery of Angels, they are ambushed.Category:Current Campaign Category:Session Notes